ESL Gaming partners with Spotify

The world’s most popular audio streaming subscription service, Spotify, and ESL Gaming, an esports organizer and production company, have joined forces to cater to the German-speaking esports community with high-quality, hassle-free access to quality audio content.

The partnership began in June with the ESL Pro League (EPL) Season 16 Conference Stage and continued with the Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) Cologne 2022. It will also include international matches throughout the EPL Season 16 Group and Playoff Stages. The collaboration also enables ESL Gaming’s services such as the ESL Meisterschaft, a German National Championship run by ESL, and the Virtual Bundesliga, a FIFA esports league, to provide customers in the German-speaking market with a richer musical experience.

Benny Eichelmann, Senior Director of Global Brand Partnerships at ESL Gaming, commented:

“The partnership is a natural brand fit as it combines the best of the undisputed leader among music streaming platforms and the world’s leading esports company. By working together we can now enhance the experiences of our German communities to enjoy both their favorite music and premier esports content.”

Spotify’s history with Esports

Spotify keeps forging new esports-related collaborations to give the popular esports titles and tournaments an existence on the audio streaming platform. In light of Spotify’s success in providing esports enthusiasts with easy access to high-quality esports content, this agreement seems reasonable for ESL.

In 2020, Riot Games also announced a collaboration with Spotify, designating them as the sole audio streaming partner for League of Legends Esports. The Mid-Season Invitational, the All-Star Event, and the World Championship were the yearly international League of Legends tournaments that served as the centerpiece of the multi-year relationship between the two. 

In 2018, Overwatch League partnered with Spotify to create five playlists to commemorate the playoffs and Grand Finals of the inaugural Overwatch League. Additionally, earlier that year, Blizzard and Disney signed a broadcast agreement that allowed ESPN, Disney XD, and ABC to broadcast the playoffs and championship games of the Overwatch league live on television.

ESL is booming with deals

During the past few months, ESL has secured deals with a variety of gaming hardware brands. In May 2022, ESL strengthened its partnership with Acer by designating Predator, the gaming company owned by Acer, as its official OEM partner for ESL One and DreamLeague. The collaboration will reportedly cover Dota Pro Circuit competitions in Western Europe and North America through 2022.

However, ESL chose Lenovo Legion as the official PC partner for the Intel Extreme Masters tournament circuit series in favor of Acer and its Predator brand for the CS:GO circuit, ending the three years long partnerships with Acer. Additionally, The Republic of Gamers (ROG), a brand of ASUS, has also been named the official OEM partner for the ESL Pro League Conference and ESL Challenger tournaments through 2022 according to an announcement made in June by ESL Gaming.

Header: ESL and Spotify